


Until Death Do Us Part

by DarlingCera



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Halloween, M/M, dia de los muertos, divorced!Carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-24
Updated: 2013-10-24
Packaged: 2017-12-30 08:22:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1016320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarlingCera/pseuds/DarlingCera
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos and Cecil celebrate Halloween and Dia De Los Muertos, only for Carlos to discover something about their little town that he didn't want to know. This fic is just an exploration of a headcanon I have about what Night Vale actually is.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Until Death Do Us Part

**Author's Note:**

> Pardon my Spanish. I haven't spoke Spanish since high school. If I get something wrong, please correct me //politely//. If you get all confrontational, I'm not going to take you seriously.

Most of the town was here now , at the Arby's, in line ordering, sitting at booths and tables, enjoying their lunch hour. These faces had grown familiar to Carlos over the time that he’d been in Night Vale. Every day this place seemed to be more like home, and his old life, his life with his family, and all those he had left behind was slowly fading into a corner at the back of his mind. He wanted more than anything to call his mother, but every time he tried, all he ever got was a dial tone and a finger wiggling its way into his ear. Where the finger came from, and what sort of wet substance it was covered in was a mystery that Carlos didn’t want to solve just yet. Though he did find it odd that he could make calls to Night Vale’s citizens, any call made to Cecil went through just fine, with near perfect reception. 

Carlos kept his eyes focused on the sidewalk outside, waiting patiently for his favorite Radio host to arrive. Outside, the citizens of Night Vale walked dogs (who whimpered at the mere sight of the dog park), shopped, stopped in the street to make small talk, even if it held up traffic. Finally, Carlos saw Cecil walking up, with that familiar gait of his, dressed sharply for work in tan corduroys and a red button-down. Cecil peered into the window and waved at Carlos with a smile. 

Cecil entered the restaurant and said his hellos to the other customers as he made his way to the table where Carlos sat. 

Finally, the blond approached the table. He leaned down and placed a kiss on Carlos’s forehead. “How’s my perfect Carlos today?” He asked, taking the seat across from the scientist. “It’s been good. We’re starting to make some progress on the samples of that mysterious slime that was coming out of everyone’s faucets last weekend.” He said .

Cecil rolled his eyes “That was ridiculous. A terrible inconvenience to everyone, though I did hear that the bakery filled some donuts with it and that they’re pretty good, even if they do cause a really nasty rash.” 

Carlos nodded, the thought of mystery slime donuts brought out a small pinprick of disgust, but then again, this was Night Vale, and there was currently a five-headed dragon running for mayor. “I ordered already, if that’s ok with you.” He said, trying to change the subject. “If wheat and wheat by products are against the law, how is this place still open? Or the bakery for that matter..” Carlos asked. Cecil pondered the question for a moment “Maybe the bread isn’t made out of wheat or wheat by products.” He said “If it is, I’m not entirely sure I want to know what it’s made out of. Though I doubt it’s anything dangerous. “ Cecil reached out and took Carlos’s hand over the table. 

“Will I see you tonight?” He asked.  
“Of course.” Carlos replied “I should be done at the lab around eight. My place or yours?” 

Cecil thought for a moment. 

“Yours.” He said “We’ve been practically living at my place lately. I’ll meet you there after I feed the cats. I need to find a way to get some of them out of there, the men’s room is getting a bit crowded.”  
“Sounds like a date.” Carlos smiled as they got their food.  
They ate their lunch and conversation continued on. It wasn’t anything more than contented small talk and Cecil’s relentless fawning over Carlos, whose hair was finally starting to grow back in after its most recent trim, much to Cecil’s delight. 

“So have you heard from her at all?” Cecil finally asked. 

“Which her are we talking about?” Carlos replied.

“Any of them, your mom, your sister, your ex-wife, any of them.”

“Nope, not a word. Thank God the divorce was finalized before I came here. “Carlos had signed the last of the divorce papers the day before he came to Night Vale.   
“I mean I guess it’s good you haven’t heard from your ex-wife…But I’d imagine you miss your mom and your sister.” Cecil said.

Carlos merely nodded and took a bite out of his sandwich 

The pair ate in quiet contentment, occasionally breaking the silence for little tidbits of conversation. 

Finally, Cecil had to leave, and Carlos decided it would be best to go back to the lab, if only to get his mind off of everything he had left behind.   
The minutes faded into hours, Carlos kept the radio playing in the background as nothing more than white nose until Cecil’s voice hit the airwaves. He took a seat behind his microscope, carefully examining slides as he got a play-by-play of their lunch at Arby's, and the recent developments in the kittens, who were now actively chasing each other around the men’s room, much to the displeasure of Station Management.   
The show eventually came to an end, and Carlos decided it was time to go home with enough time to straighten up the place before Cecil arrived. He locked the lab up tightly, in hopes that his experiments and samples might not mysteriously go missing again tonight before getting into his truck and driving the mile and a half to his apartment block, which was much less inviting and aesthetically pleasing than Cecil’s cozy little cottage with its small front lawn that grew purple snapdragons, which actually snapped like beatniks at a poetry reading.

Carlos adjusted the pillows on the sofa, and made his bed, though he didn’t think they would be getting much use out of it tonight. He went to the kitchen and brewed a pot of coffee as he put away the dishes and various food items that he’d left about. 

At precisely six-thirty, the doorbell rang, and Carlos ran to get it after putting away the last of the dinner plates that had been sitting in the dishwasher for a day or two. 

Cecil grew impatient, even though he had been waiting outside of the door for less than a minute. He stood, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet until he heard Carlos opening the latch and unlocking the doorknob. There was no explanation for his unease, and he chalked it up to government -mandated emotions.

The blond finally grew still for a moment and smiled as Carlos let him in. He set his overnight bag on the floor next to the front door and wrapped himself around Carlos, allowing the feeling of Friday night to really set in. Cecil felt the stress of meeting Station Management’s unreasonable new requirements melt away, and for a moment, he ceased to worry about what had happened to the newest Night Vale Community Radio Intern. She had done her requisite four hours of shouting at Station management, then went home, but Cecil knew that anything could have happened to her on the way back to wherever she lived. 

“Cecil…” Carlos said, bringing the radio host out of his own thoughts.

“Cecil, you’re crushing me.” 

Cecil hadn’t realized how tight his grip on Carlos had been and he reluctantly let go, moving over to the sofa. 

Carlos followed, sinking into the overly-soft cushions and pulling Cecil into his lap. Cecil curled up to Carlos, his head resting on the other’s shoulder, his eyes falling shut. He listened to Carlos’s breath, and resisting the urge to fall asleep right there. Work was getting to be too much lately. Too often was the Voice of Night Vale also the bearer of bad news. Shortly after he returned from their lunch date , Cecil found a stack of urgent news briefs, the most urgent one was Hiram McDaniels’s crime spree after learning of his loss in the town’s mayoral race. 

McDaniels was quoted as saying “I am a five-headed Dragon who doesn’t care anymore.” 

Carlos felt a little bad for laughing at that, but was secretly thankful that he’d made it back to the lab before the Faceless old Woman was announced the winner of the mayoral election. Her term would begin on November first.

November first brought a thought to Carlos’s mind, that he mulled over for just a bit. 

“Cecil, does Night Vale celebrate Halloween? Or Dia de Los Muertos?” He asked. He hadn’t noticed that Cecil was almost asleep on his shoulder and he felt a bit rude for waking him up. As consolation, the scientist removed his boyfriend’s glasses and set them on the end table before grabbing the crochet blanket that his mother had sent him to Night Vale with and draping it over the pair of them. He kicked off his shoes and set his feet up on the coffee table. 

Cecil stirred a little at the question, and let his eyes close again as Carlos removed his glasses. “We do both.” He said softly. “Halloween is mostly for the kids though. They do the trick or treating and all that. We get a bunch of trick or treaters at the radio station. Technically the interns are supposed to handle candy distribution, but I like to do it and I usually do it until Station Management makes me come inside. “ He yawned “We were going to try to give away some of the kittens this year but they still can’t seem to get out of the bathroom.” 

“What about Day of the Dead?” Carlos asked. 

“Well a lot of people go out of town for that one. Everyone likes to spend time with their family on that day.” 

Carlos remembered spending Dia de los Muertos with his family, going to his father and grandfather’s graves, cleaning up the headstones and bringing fresh flowers and food , watching as the other families did the same for their relatives. 

“So will I get to meet your family?” Carlos asked .

“I don’t know, maybe. I mean it’s just my mom and I. I’ve supposedly got a brother, according to those tapes I found. I called my mom and she didn’t know anything about it. I don't know my dad either. Though according to my mom he's a rotten piece of garbage and I have his ears”   
“I think I’d like to meet your family more, though. I bet they’re all beautiful and perfect.” He chuckled.

Carlos smiled.

“It’s more of an ‘everyone hangs out with their own family’ kind of thing anyways. It’s really the only time anyone leaves Night Vale.” 

Carlos didn’t think much of it. He knew people didn’t leave town often. He assumed it was just that small-town mentality. Everybody knew everybody (thanks, partially, to The Voice of Night Vale) and everyone was one big , extended family. The people were relatively friendly, and between bouts of death and destruction, Night Vale was a happy, close-knit community. 

“You should go home for it. I’m sure your family misses you.” Cecil said, nuzzling Carlos’s shoulder. 

“Yeah, I think I will. I’d like for you to come with me, but I understand that you probably want to see your mom and figure out that whole brother situation.” The scientist replied, as he adjusted the arm he had around Cecil’s waist. 

“Can we go to bed?” Cecil asked, not wanting to discuss the subject any further. 

“In what sense of the word?” Carlos asked.

“Italicized and with implications.” Cecil replied, a smirk creeping across his lips. 

“Alright.” Carlos tucked one arm under Cecil’s legs and carefully got up from the couch, picking the other man up and carrying him off to the bedroom. 

When they were done, Carlos listened as Cecil’s breath slowed down against his chest, he gently traced his fingers over the tattoos on Cecil’s back and over the sleeve on his left arm. Finally, the scientist fell asleep.

The pair spent their weekend together, cooking together, watching movies, biding their time with sex and the quiet moments after. Eventually, though, all good things come to an end and Monday arrived. 

After a long kiss goodbye, Cecil got in his car and left, stopping to pick up candy for the trick-or-treaters that would be arriving later that afternoon. The radio station had a reputation to uphold as the best candy-givers in town, and Cecil wasn’t about to tarnish that. Halloween at the station was almost like a small festival. As Cecil arrived, there were a couple of interns setting up a table out on the lawn with free NVCR stickers and key chains, A hooded figure stood by and watched as a bouncy house inflated for the kids. “Everything looks great, you guys!” Cecil said as he went inside to find a bowl big enough for the assortment of sweets that he had brought. 

Later in the day, after the day’s broadcast had finished and the sun had begun to set, Cecil came out of the station to join in the festivities. He handed out candy to the children in their costumes, paying each a small compliment as they took their treats and left. 

He was soon joined by Carlos, who pulled up a plastic lawn chair and sat down next to Cecil. 

“So are you going to go home tomorrow?” Cecil asked. 

“Yeah, I was planning on it.” Carlos replied. 

“Good, we can meet back at my place after, alright?” he said, as a child who was dressed as one singular tentacle approached. Carlos nodded and stole a piece of the candy from the bowl.  
“Oh what a great costume!” Cecil declared, “Check this out.” He rolled up his shirt sleeve and made a tentacle tattoo wriggle down his arm. 

“Pretty neat, huh?” Cecil asked, as he handed the kid a candy bar. The child giggled and ran off.   
Carlos smiled “What else can you do with those?” he asked.

“All sorts of stuff. They come in handy if I need an extra pair of hands.” 

“I wish we could have one of our own.” Cecil said, as another child collected their candy and left, tugging at the hem of their mother’s skirt.

“I don’t see why we couldn’t adopt.” Carlos replied.

“We could.” Cecil said “I just don’t feel like I'll be ready any time soon. I like having you all to myself. But We might get one whether we like it or not . The city council appoints them to couples they think would be good parents. “ 

That reminded Carlos of more than a few dystopian novels he had read growing up, and the thought filled him with a slight unease and a curiosity as to who was producing these children and where.  
The night wound down slowly , and surprisingly there was still candy left over as well as a few pizzas. Cecil bagged up the candy and blurred out the labeling on the pizza box, so that nobody would know he was smuggling it home, even though Carlos had said it wouldn’t work. 

Carlos went home with Cecil, and they spent the night on the sofa watching scary movies (None of which were particularly frightening to Cecil, some of those things happened on a fairly regular basis in Night Vale.) They ate candy and pizza until they both felt like they were going to burst, and finally they fell asleep on the sofa, wrapped in pillows and blankets. 

The alarm on Carlos’s phone woke them up as the sun peeked over the horizon the next morning. “Cecil, c’mon , I need to get up.” He gently got Cecil off of him. The blond sat up on the couch and rubbed his eyes before putting his glasses on. Carlos popped his back, which was sore from sleeping on the sofa. Cecil got up and made a pot of coffee.   
“I’ll be back tomorrow morning ,ok? Maybe a little sooner.” Carlos said, as Cecil poured his coffee into a travel mug “Sure, that’s ok. I’ll be back at around eight tonight, if you’re here before me, just let yourself in with the spare key.” Cecil yawned and handed over the coffee. 

With a long hug, and several slow kisses, Carlos went back to his car that he had parked out front. Cecil waved as he drove off before going inside to change his clothes and get ready for the day.   
The drive to Carlos’s little home town would take a few hours, and he calculated that if he kept to just over the speed limit, he would make it there by lunch time. He was nervous about seeing his mother for the first time in over a year. He didn’t need his PhD to know that she would be furious with him for not calling, though explaining to her why he couldn’t call would probably just make her more upset. 

He kept driving, Night Vale getting smaller and smaller in his rearview mirror until all he saw was desert. Finally, though, his town came into view, with it’s nondescript little signs and one traffic light. Carlos drove up the main drag and hung a left, then a right. 

Festivities at his home were already in full swing and he could smell his mother’s cooking from the driveway. He tucked his keys into his pocket and opened the unlocked front door. “Mama!” he called into the kitchen. His mother sat at the kitchen table, supervising as her grandchildren decorated skulls made from sugar. She didn’t look up at him. None of them looked up at him. His nieces and nephew kept working, their little hands sticky with sugar. 

“Very funny, you guys.” Carlos said, a large, fake frown played on his lips. He groaned when nobody looked up still. “Listen, mama. I’m sorry I haven’t called, but I’ve got so much to tell you about. It’s just that there’s something wrong with Night Vale’s phone service and I can’t seem to make any calls outside of town.”   
Still nobody looked up. 

His nephew, barely five looked up at his grandmother. “ Esto es por tio Carlos.” He said with a wide smile. 

The grandmother smiled a sad smile. “Que bien! “ She said, taking his little hand, even though it was blue with icing. 

“Why…?” Carlos thought. Perhaps the child just didn’t know any better. He was here, wasn’t he?

“Manuel...” Carlos said “Estoy aqui!” The little boy still didn’t look up. 

“Alright, Mama, that’s enough.” He said, knowing just how vindictive his mother could be.

Carlos rolled his eyes and walked out to the living room. Where the altar was set up .He could smell the flowers at the altar, and it mixed with the scents from the food in the kitchen.   
A third photo had joined the ones of his grandfather and his father. It was his own. “Mom, that’s cruel! That’s wrong and cruel and you know it! Look I’m sorry I didn’t call, but come on!” He said, storming back into the kitchen. She still didn’t look up. “Ok, so I’m dead to you now?” He asked. 

He decided he’d take a short look around the house, just for posterity, just to see his room that he’d stayed in up until the day he’d gotten married, then moved back into after the divorce proceedings began. He had stayed there up until the morning he had left for Night Vale. 

The bed was made, just as he’d left it , his desk chair neatly tucked in and some photos still hanging on the wall. 

On the bed was a newspaper, turned to the obituaries. He seated himself on the bed and scanned the page. It was filled with small portraits of the elderly , and their little columns of information.   
But right at the bottom left corner was a picture of a young man, thirty something at most. His heart sank. 

“Carlos Sanchez, aged thirty-two passed away in his hospital bed after an accident at the university’s chemistry laboratory , he is survived by his mother, sister, nieces and nephew. “  
The date of his death was the same as the date he had left for Night Vale. 

“Shit, shit shit…” He muttered. The realization sunk in that this wasn’t a cruel joke and Carlos let out an anguished scream that went unheard by everyone else in the house. 

He ran.

He ran out of the house, out to his car and shoved the key into the ignition, speeding back to Night Vale as fast as his truck would take him.

Meanwhile, Cecil had driven just a few miles out of town to see his mom in the little retirement home where she had resided for the past five or so years. He had already come to the same realization that Carlos had, and was now content to sit with his mother on the sofa and watch game shows, or watch her do a jigsaw puzzle. Occasionally he would move an edge piece while she wasn’t looking.   
He wondered what would happen to her when she died. If she would join him in Night Vale, or if she would move on to some better place. 

He stayed with her until dark, then he hopped into his car and drove home.

Carlos had let himself in with the spare key. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” The scientist growled. 

“Why didn’t I tell you what?” Cecil asked, his face slightly contorted in confusion.

“Why didn’t you tell me that I’m dead!” He nearly screamed “Are you dead too? What the hell is wrong with this place? Is this hell? Cecil , be honest with me, is this hell? Sometimes it seems nightmarish enough to be Hell.”

Cecil sighed. “Carlos, have a seat, calm down.” 

“No, Cecil, I refuse to calm down until I know what’s going on!” his eyes were beginning to brim over with tears now, and he finally settled down on the couch. 

“I’m pretty sure this isn’t Hell.” Cecil said, taking Carlos into his arms as the scientist began to cry. “I’m pretty sure you get to hell through the dog park.” He gently stroked Carlos’s hair.   
Carlos tried to steady his breathing, but it still shook as he resisted the urge to burst into sobs. 

“It’s ok Carlos.” Cecil murmured. “Honestly, there isn’t anything you can do about it now. Once you’re gone, you’re gone. But you’re happy here right? You’ve made a new existence for yourself.”  
“I guess.” Carlos muttered. 

“I promise you’ll be ok, you’ll get used to it. The idea of being dead, nobody outside of town being able to see you. I swear it all gets easier.” He kissed Carlos’s forehead as he rocked them back and forth on the couch. 

“I don’t know if I will...I mean my old life was sort of miserable, but I never wanted to die.” He said softly. 

“I know.” Cecil replied, deciding that his best option was to just listen.

“I died in a lab accident.” Carlos said. “ What a way to go.” 

“My mom was right about mirrors being the death of me.” Cecil said. “I got mugged by a drug addict. They stabbed me in the neck with a large piece of mirror. I bled out on the sidewalk.” 

Carlos wasn’t sure if he should smile or not, Cecil seemed so blase about his own death. 

“So the children…they’re all..?” he trailed off. 

“Yep.” Cecil answered. 

Carlos felt his chest tighten. 

“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you right away….you see, I figured you wouldn’t believe me. “ Cecil sighed. “I mean you can’t just tell someone they’re dead, when they’re quite obviously still feeling alive. That's ridiculous.”

Carlos nodded. 

“But it is what it is.” Cecil said “Just know that if you start to feel bad, or miss your family, that you’ve got people who love you here, you’ve got friends and colleagues and of course me.” 

“I better have you.” Carlos said, trying to lighten the mood and make the best out of what he imagined was the worst possible situation. 

“And I better have you.” Cecil teased.

“I guess ‘till death do us part’ doesn’t really apply here, does it?” Carlos asked as the corner of his mouth lifted itself just a bit. 

“Nope.” Cecil replied, leaning in for a kiss.


End file.
